Andy Milne & Unison

Wed, Nov 12

TICKETS $30 - ALL AGES For more than 30 years, two-time Juno Award winning pianist/composer Andy Milne has demonstrated boundless versatility, collaborating with dancers, film makers, authors, visual artists, poets and musicians spanning multiple genres. With UNISON Milne returns to his first love, exploring the intimacy of the piano trio. The synchronistic relationship Milne enjoys with his bandmates represents the complimentary threads within the fabric of Milne’s piano trio philosophy -- the intersection of texture and groove. Unison’s 2024 Sunnyside Records release “Time Will Tell” was nominated for a 2025 Juno Award and was included on numerous “best of 2024” lists. Their 2020 debut, “The reMission” [Sunnyside Records] won the 2021 JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year: Group and received widespread media praise. A former student of Oscar Peterson, Milne has collaborated with a range of artists including Ralph Alessi, Ravi Coltrane, Andrew Cyrille, Sekou Sundiata, Avery Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, and Cassandra Wilson. During his early career in the 1990s, he was at the center of the M-BASE Collective as a core member of saxophonist Steve Coleman’s bands and became a distinct and respected voice at the heart of New York’s creative jazz scene. Milne has released 12 recordings as a leader or co-leader, and is actively composing for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and scoring for film and television. His credits include two films for Emmy Award winning director Michèle Stephenson, as well as seven films by acclaimed actor/director William Shatner. In 2024 Milne premiered a piano quintet with the Isidore String Quartet, commissioned by the Banff International String Quartet Competition. He is a Yamaha Artist and sought-after educator, currently a full-time assistant professor of music at The University of Michigan. John Hébert, originally from New Orleans, has been a highly sought-after New York bassist since the mid-1990s. A former student of Rufus Reid, Hébert has collaborated extensively with pianists Fred Hersch and Andrew Hill, appearing on celebrated recordings from each pianist. He has also performed with Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Motian, Uri Caine, Bill Stewart, Mary Halvorson, Tomasz Stanko, David Liebman, and Toots Thielemans, among many others. An accomplished bandleader, Hébert’s 2015 Sunnyside release with his quartet Rambling Confessions -- his quartet featuring Milne -- received critical acclaim, including 4.5 stars from Downbeat. Over the past decade, he has been named multiple times as a “Rising Star Acoustic Bassist” in Downbeat’s Critics Poll and has received multiple Grammy nominations. Drummer Kush Abadey has cultivated an eclectic and fast-moving career, known for his versatility across jazz, rock, and electronica. At age 16, he joined the band of Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Wallace Roney, and has since performed with leading artists including Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, Melissa Aldana, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Ethan Iverson, Wayne Krantz, Nicholas Payton, Tomasz Stanko, Gilad Hekselman, Seamus Blake, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Frank Lacy, Wynton Marsalis, and Buster Williams. A few standout milestones include performing for Michelle Obama at the White House and becoming the youngest artist ever chosen for the Strathmore Artist-in-Residence program. In 2009, he earned a Presidential Scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music, where he studied with Terri Lyne Carrington, Ralph Peterson, and Darren Barrett. After two years at Berklee, Kush moved to New York City in 2012 and quickly became a sought-after drummer on the jazz scene. Known for his dynamic style and creative adaptability, he continues to perform, tour, and record internationally with a wide range of respected artists and ensembles.